98 \ ;[: b,. f: Yes, There Is a Different Christmas Gift ... a clock designed by George Nelson to accent the most engaging interiors At the nicest stores everywhere Write Dept NY-123 for free brochure Howard Miller Clock Company e Zeeland Michigan o,.c . o .. ' ...- ...-... . ...- ... ...- ... . ...-:..... . . - \ \ . _ , 4-7 \.1 . >-": ...... <-:t:,.. <- ...",. .. ,'.- : + '. , i- \ . > "41 ' . . .M ",,' :J ) ';', 2 9 M C:A R! S A S E " fl . EAt) DE TO ,i 1'TE : · .' $:2:2; 13-75; 8J 0; 5.5 0 . 0 \ . . AFTE.R S -4'yE LOTIO .. · · · $8..25; 5. 2 3; 3.. 0 3 ....: Federal tax included . f1 \ Clothing · Hats · Haberdashery · Establtshed [886 : MADISON AVENUE AT 46TH STREE r NEW YORK 17 r V V O . .. L ...." ."""' ......- ... .c.-< ....,- Ã - .... -;:"... _... -:'... ,....., ... ':J ... ... ....; ... ,:øt.....;. ....... 7U... >.,.,..... ,}.... ;Jw -<:H "'Co" .:<<. I f' . . L r v f^' DECEMDEI\ .3, I 9 5 5 the Ford Foundation has gone far be- yond Carnegie and Rockefeller in its enthusiasm for the soft sciences, and this year it has stepped up its spending with the announcement of a $15,000,000 program in mental-health research. The behavioral sciences were Gaither's spe- cial province during his first years with the Foundation. At that time, he sum- marized their unsatisfactory state in these words: If you examine the field carefully. you quickly discover a startling disorder. Ylany of these subjects, though they call theinseives sciences, lack the important characteristics of science.... A natural science like physics consists of experiment, the accumulation of data, the framing of general theories, attempts to verify the theories, and prediction. . . . rrhere is very little of this here. Experi- ment is, of course, difficult. But for the Inost part these sciences are content with the accumulation of data Theories are fran1ed but rarely verified, for there is no universal standard for the verification process. And ,vhat theories there are seem to be either particular theories, designed to cover the accumulated data and no Inore. or theories so general they are use- less for prediction, like "the law of sup- ply and demand." There is also a disturb- ing discontinuity. Although the various branches of the field should be capable of reinforcing and stimulating each other, they \vork in isolation. There are those who say that the be- havioral sciences are oft because that is their nature, and that attempts to harden them bJ imitatIng the quanti- tative, measuring, verifying approach of physics and chemistry lead merely to grandiose and sterile "group projects," SInce the amount of data required is more than one person can gather or han- dle. The results of the projects, it is further claImed, are neither scientific (since the units measured are too dis- parate and the factors involved too variable, complex, intangible, and subtle to permit hard answers) nor creative, like the work of such great, and soft, pioneers as Hobbes, Rousseau, Ben- tham, Marx, V eblen, :\1ill, de T ocque- ville, Max Weber, and Freud Al- though Dr. Berelson has expressed misgivings (as well as satisfaction) about the dominance today of the hard approach, hIs division appears, on the whole, to favor it, which means it also favors group prolects. Nor is it alone in taking this tack; a chart in the No- vember Fortune shows that the per- centage of research papers written by two or more authors appearing in the leading economic, sociological, psycho- logical, and political journals has in- creased greatly since 1920. Dr. Berelson was puzzled to observe that \Villiam H. \Vhyte, Jr., the author of the accom-